


Partners in Crime (fighting)

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: (super) suit and tie [4]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: M/M, Modern AU, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:15:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26608093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: Getting hurt is a hazard of the superhero job.Still, it's never happenedbefore.
Relationships: Racetrack Higgins/David Jacobs
Series: (super) suit and tie [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906060
Comments: 18
Kudos: 49





	Partners in Crime (fighting)

**Author's Note:**

> This is a jump back in time for the (super) suit and tie au - back to the incident that led to Tony and David getting together, three years before their wedding!

Tony is lucky, he thinks, that he’s as strong as he is. Because right now, David is not doing a lot of work to keep himself upright. Tony is trying not to worry too much about that, though, because if he lets himself worry he’s not going to be any good to David.

“Hey, Daves, you still with me?” he asks quietly. 

David nods, but he looks pained. “Yeah. You know me, Racer. I’m sturdy.”

Tony chuckles, somewhat despite himself. “Yeah, okay. You okay with goin’ to the hospital in costume?”

“It would be harder to explain if I didn’t.”

“Okay,” says Tony. “Okay. I got you. We’re almost there.”

–

As soon as David – still in his full Flare getup, though his hair is all kinds of askew – is in the capable hands of the emergency room staff, Tony makes a break for home. He knows he’ll find his way back before too long; he wants to be there the instant David is allowed visitors, but for now there’s no use pacing a hole in the waiting room floor (and drawing all kinds of attention).

So he goes home.

He takes a quick shower, washing away the blood and soot and building dust that’s caked to every bit of exposed skin, and the layer of sweat he can feel on every inch of him. When he dresses again, he goes to the Race drawer. He doesn’t want to go back to the hospital in his full supersuit, but he also knows that the only way he’ll be able to see David is if he goes as Race.

That’s both practical and unavoidable – aside from the desire to avoid risking their secret identities, nobody has any reason to let Tony Higgins into Flare’s hospital room, but nobody has any reason to stop Race from being at his partner’s side.

And anyway, Race is the one who was with Flare when he was hurt. Race is the one who brought Flare into the emergency room in a near blind panic, because his partner had fully lost consciousness before they made it there. Race _not_ visiting Flare in the hospital would likely draw attention.

So. Race it is, then. But his supersuit has seen better days – it’s gross, for one, and it has a tear in the sleeve from how hard David had instinctively yanked on it to get him out of the way as the wall came down. There’s always his old look, he supposes, of sweatpants and an athletic shirt, but he thinks Buttons might actually murder him if he’s ever seen in public in that again. _Here, this should work._

It’s a t-shirt, made of some snazzy high-tech fabric, the same navy blue as his supersuit. Instead of the bolt of lightning that runs across his torso on the supersuit, though, it just has a small logo printed on the upper left side – the one Buttons designed for them when he and Flare first started working together, their two individual logos reworked and intertwined. He throws some jeans on with it, hoping the shirt and his mask will be enough.

Post-shower, and dressed, Tony has his head on straight enough to send a few text messages.

One to Buttons:

_He’s hurt. I’m coming over._

And one to Sarah:

_F hurt. Don’t visit. I’ll update you when I can._

And then, because he’s not an idiot, he tucks his mask into his pocket and throws a jacket on over the shirt for the trip over to David and Benny’s place.

Benny is their suit guy, Buttons, but he’s also David’s best friend and roommate, the only person Tony is aware of to ever accidentally catch David using his powers out of the suit.

And he’s waiting for Tony when he arrives, a look of sheer, broken terror in his eyes.

“I’ve got a bag for him,” Benny says. “I had the news on, like a fucking idiot. Tony, is it – is he as bad as it looked?”

Tony nods, chewing on his lower lip. “He was in and out on the way to the hospital, but he completely passed out like a block away and I couldn’t get him to respond anymore.”

“Shit,” says Benny. “Fuck, shit, _fuck_. Okay. And you brought him in in the whole thing, yeah?”

“Yeah, of course,” says Tony.

“So I can’t go see him,” Benny replies, resigned. _Fuck_. Somehow it had clicked that David’s siblings and parents wouldn’t be able to visit him in the hospital, but it hadn’t even occurred to Tony that Benny wouldn’t be able to go either.

“Ben, I’m so sorry,” Tony says.

Benny shakes his head. “It’s – just go, okay? Look out for him for me.”

“Yeah,” Tony chokes out, “yeah, Benny, I will. You know I will.”

“Yeah, I know,” says Benny. He hands Tony the bag. “There’s a contact case in there, and some not-supersuit Flare shit.”

Tony nods, taking it. Before he leaves, he pulls Benny into a one-armed hug. “He’ll be okay. He’s gotta be okay.”

“David’s sturdy,” Benny says, and Tony almost laughs because that’s exactly how David had described himself a few hours ago, isn’t it? That’s just how he and Ben are, though. “He’ll be okay. Text me when you can.”

“I will,” Tony promises. “I will.”

\--

Tony has a lot of time to think, once he’s able to visit David in the hospital. David is asleep, the doctors say he’s doing better, and it’s all Tony can really do to just pace his room, alone with his thoughts.

He thinks about how when that wall came down, it felt like the floor fell out underneath him, too. 

He thinks about how frantic he’d been to make sure that Flare was alive - that _David_ was alive. 

How he’d almost lashed out at Impulse, who Tony _knew_ hadn’t done it on purpose.

How his heart ached with _I’ve never told him -_

_Never told him what, though_? Tony keeps asking himself. There’s this feeling gnawing at him, like there’s something he needs to tell David, something that would crush him alive if David actually died without knowing, but - _what_.

Because they’re friends and they’re partners but Tony isn’t in love with David or anything.

Except, holy shit, Tony is totally in love with David.

“Stop pacing,” David mumbles from the bed. “Y’re stressin’ me out.”

“Daves!” Tony says, trusting their aloneness enough to use David’s real name. He drops into the chair by David’s bedside. “You’re awake.”

“M’awake. M’okay, see?” David gives him a sleepy smile. “Be better’n no time.”

“You scared the shit outta me, David,” says Tony.

David pats his hand. “I know. M’sorry. M’okay.”

“No, you are not okay,” Tony replies. He sighs. “But you will be, eventually. Thank God.”

“Thanks for -” David yawns - “for stickin’ around.”

“’Course,” says Tony. “Of course. S’not like anybody you’d rather have here can come, while you’re here as Flare.”

“Nobody I’d rather have here than you.”

That makes Tony’s heart skip a beat, a tentative hope washing over him. Maybe, just maybe, David feels the same way.

Rather than voicing that, Tony gives him a weak laugh. “Shit, Davey-boy, don’t let Benny hear you say that.”

“You kiddin’?” says David, smiling at Tony. He pats Tony’s hand again. “Benny would be a nightmare. He hates when I get hurt.”

“I hate when you get hurt, too, you know.”

“Yeah,” David says. “I know.”

“David,” Tony says, suddenly feeling a little bold. “There’s something I want to talk to you about. To tell you.”

“I’m all ears,” says David.

“David, I –“

He’s interrupted by the arrival of a doctor, who’s come to check on David. On Flare, rather.

Tony slips back into the Race persona, his hand falling away from Flare’s, taking a deep breath and schooling his expression into one more appropriate to their professional relationship.

He’s concerned for his partner, who’s been injured.

He’s not out of mind with worry over his friend, over the man he’s in love with. Nope.

He’s Race, listening with polite worry and professional interest as the doctors check on Flare and explain what’s going on.

He can’t _afford_ to be Tony, barely holding it together, right now.

The doctor leaves, and Tony slumps forward, resting his elbows on the mattress next to David.

“What update do you want me to give your better half?” Tony asks, once he’s sure they won’t be interrupted again. “And Sarah, I guess.”

David laughs weakly. “Tell Buttons everything, tell my sister I’m fine.”

“Oh, no, I’m not gonna be complicit in your lying to your sister,” Tony says, shaking his head. “She may not know my real name, but I have a feeling she can still hunt me down and kill me.”

“I don’t want her and the others worrying,” David replies halfheartedly.

“You know we were on the news, right?” Tony says flatly. “There’s no way in hell your family doesn’t know what happened.”

David winces. “Please, Racer. Tell her I’m okay.”

“ _Flare_ ,” Tony says. David looks at him pleadingly, and quite honestly Tony can’t say no to that for long. “Ugh, fine. But if Sarah and Les show up on my doorstep to murder me –“

“Then call Ben, since he’s _not_ afraid of my toothpick of a baby brother,” David says, rolling his eyes.

“Ben Davenport is fucking fearless,” says Tony, grinning at him. “How else would he manage living with you?”

David smiles. “Practice.” He reaches for Tony’s hand, which is resting next to him again. “Hey, Tones? What were you going to say earlier?”

“What do you mean?” Tony says, in spite of the fact that he knows _exactly_ what David is asking about.

“You said you wanted to tell me something,” David says, a faint furrow between his eyebrows. “Before the doctors came in.”

“Ha, yeah,” says Tony, his voice going a little high and nervous. “Right, that, I – uh. I forgot?”

“Tony.”

“David,” Tony says. He turns his hand to actually thead his fingers through David’s. “Look, I – I’m sure this is overstepping what we’ve got going on, I’m sure it’s too much and I’m sure it’ll just make things weird, but, like – fuck. Okay. David, I really – I have – uh, feelings? For you?”

“Feelings?” David repeats, the furrow in his brow deepening.

“Romantic ones, maybe?” says Tony. He can’t quite bring himself to meet David’s eye.

“Romantic feelings?” David echoes.

“I know,” says Tony, “I know, it’s weird, it’s too much, I just –“ He tries to tug his hand back, but David’s grip goes from slack to vicelike.

Tony looks up, his gaze meeting David’s.

“Really?” David says softly.

“Really,” Tony replies. “I’d never really – never let myself think about it, because we’re partners and we’re friends, and I didn’t want to ruin that, but – but then you got hurt, and you used the half-second you had to react to make sure _I_ was safe, and – and it hit me like a brick fucking wall.” He sighs, looking down at their joined hands again. “I was so terrified, Davey, I was so scared I’d lost you and I’d never even told you how much you meant to me.”

“You didn’t lose me, Tones,” says David. He squeezes Tony’s hand. “Tell me now?”

“Everything,” Tony blurts. “You mean everything to me. I love you, David, and I’m sorry if that’s – if that’s too far, or something, but I –“

“Tony,” David interrupts. “Tony, _Anthony_ , sweetheart, calm down.”

“Sweetheart?”

“Sweetheart,” says David, nodding. “Do you know why I saved you?”

“Because we’re partners?” says Tony. “Because your reaction time is better than mine?”

“Because I knew the wall was coming down,” David says, shaking his head, “and all I could think about was making sure _you_ didn’t get hurt.” He takes a slow breath before continuing. “When we’re in danger, Tony, you’re always my first concern. You know why?”

“Because I’m an idiot?”

David chuckles. “No. Because I love you, too. Ben gives me so much shit for it, you don’t even know –“

“You love me?” Tony says, shocked.

“Yes,” David says. Like it’s easy. Like it’s obvious.

“Oh,” says Tony.

“Where do we go from here?” David asks, gently squeezing Tony’s fingers.

“I don’t know,” Tony admits. “But I think wherever it is, we’re going together.”


End file.
